Tag Archives: Allegro Coffee

Photos from March 30: Lillian planting peas with her grandma, Terry. Turning the soil in the raised beds.

Although its early May, I’ve already been working in my gardens for nearly two months. Often the first trip to the community garden occurs on a warm day in late February or early March and snow may still be on the ground. Many times, we’ve had to brush aside snow and chisel away at the soil to get our St. Patrick’s Day peas planted. But not this year. We had a rather mild winter in Colorado so the soil was uncharacteristically workable in early March. My garden pals and I were thus at Rosedale digging early in the season and the peas went in like butter.

Photos: Toasting St. Patrick’s Day with my mom’s Waterford goblets, picking up free compost and burlap bags at Allegro’s Coffee’s Earth Day Celebration, me posing in front of our robust garlic patch with Marilynn’s garden behind me. She was my neighbor for 17 years and sadly died of lung cancer the day before this visit to our garden on March 16.

By March 16, we’d planted our first round of peas and spinach. A few weeks later, we planted more peas with the help of Terry’s grand daughter Lillian as well as other cold crops including lettuce, carrots, beets, broccoli and more. I was also surprised to find that many crops that typically don’t make it through the winter, survived — cilantro, rosemary, kale, chard, parsley.

Photos from March 16: Ana,Terry and Susan getting ready to plant peas on a very windy March afternoon, our tomato cages all lined up where we plan to plant tomatoes in late May, the garlic patch growing between planks of wood for walking.

We’re off to a good start and busily prepping all the beds for the big warm season planting in just a few short weeks. Although the weather can be deceptively nice in May, we still must restraint ourselves from planting our precious tomatoes, peppers and warm season crops until we’re safely past May 22. Last year, we had about 6 inches of snow around May 20!

Photos from March 31: Free tomato seeds earned as a volunteer at DUG free seed distribution, tomato seedlings planted on March 31, two trays of 12 6 packs of tomatoes and peppers growing under lights and on heat mats.

In the last few years, Earth Day has become a bigger deal than ever with many businesses and nonprofits hosting special events. One event which tempted visitors with fresh compost, coffee beans, free seeds and burlap sacks caught my attention. I recruited a friend and we made the journey north to pick up some garden loot. Upon arrival, we ran into two other Rosedale gardeners — Nick and Loma — loading up their goodies too. It was a beautiful day to visit Allegro Coffee and see where the beans that supply Whole Foods Coffee Shops are roasted. Tents were set up at the edge of the parking lot with Allegro staff members and we set to work filling four burlap sacks with compost, accepted packets of bee pollinator flower seeds and filled bags with coffee beans for our compost pile. Additionally, we were able to load up as many burlap sacks as we wanted to use on the paths in our garden. After loading the car, we headed to the onsite coffee shop with our coupons and enjoyed an hour imagining what it would be like to worki in such a earth friendly place. A good day!

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Hi, I am an avid gardener both at home and at Rosedale Community Garden where I've had a plot for 19 years. I am very interested in learning more about gardening, how to preserve it, incorporating farm fresh produce into my cooking and living a healthy lifestyle. In addition, I am a Master Community Gardener through Denver Urban Gardens and am a shareholder at the Chatfield CSA. In 2015, I spearheaded an effort to start a community donation garden at St. Philip's Lutheran Church -- a project I will share on my blog. I am eager to share what I've learned and the adventures I had learning new things and interacting with the garden community.